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April 16, 2012

G10: Rays 1, Red Sox 0

Bard (6.2-4-1-7-7, 111) walked three Rays with two outs in the seventh, one a four-pitch pass to Evan Longoria with the bases loaded. The walks hurt, obviously, but Bard turned in a great start, complimenting his fastball with a devastating slider.

Shields (8.1-4-0-2-5, 115) scattered four singles and allowed only one Boston runner past first base. In the bottom of the ninth, Dustin Pedroia walked with one out, and (with Fernando Rodney now pitching) took second on Adrian Gonzalez's grounder to first. David Ortiz was walked intentionally. Cody Ross saw five pitches; all of them were outside the strike zone, but plate umpire Larry Vanover called three of them strikes, ending the game.

Valentine, on Youkilis:"I don't think he's as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason. But [on Saturday] it seemed, you know, he's seeing the ball well, got those two walks, got his on-base percentage up higher than his batting average, which is always a good thing, and he'll move on from there."

Youkilis:"I was confused by those remarks. Everyone knows I play the game hard. ... I just go out and play the game as hard as I can."

Pedroia:"I don't know what Bobby's trying to do, but that's not the way we do things here. Maybe that stuff works in Japan."

Valentine's comment could have been worse--if he'd called out Yook on his weekly Micheal Kay appearance. In fact, the way the Boston media and the blogotwitterverse operates, in a couple of months it will be a 'fact' that Valentine DID call out Youk on Yankee TV.

Whoa! Mutiny in the works if Pedroia, the team player who everyone says is the most dedicated, is pissed off with Bobby.

I never liked BV, never will, still don't. I miss Terry. I am having a really hard time so far this spring finding much to love, except for Pedroia, Ortiz, LBJ (sob), and Youk. It feels like I am really rooting for the uniform most of the time. Sigh.

On the Sox pre game show on NESN, Cafardo is criticizing Youk and Pedroia for not talking to Valentine, to "understand the full context of his comments" (or something like that), before talking to the press themselves.

Looks like the players don't like how Bobby does things. It's also really good to see that BV has really settled down the clubhouse and has brought everyone together. Although, he probably didn't expect the players to all be against him. (If they aren't there yet and we're hearing this stuff in the press already, then they'll definitely get there.)

Gonzalez:As far as the end of the game goes, those pitches that were called on Cody, that's not right. They were in the left-handed hitter's box. The way I see it, we missed the playoffs by one game last year. If he walks there, like he should have, or assuming he gets a hit, and we end up winning today, that could make a difference.

Ross:We've been playing this game for so long that you recognize pitches early and you see them out of the hand, and you say, 'That's a ball,' and then it crosses wherever and it's called a strike. I've taught myself over the years to take those pitches and not expand my strike zone. Make him make a mistake. He didn't make a mistake. As soon as it comes out of his hand, I'm in shutdown mode, saying, 'No, that's a ball.' Then it's a strike. Next one -- ball. No, strike. What are you going to do? Move on and go get them tomorrow.

"-if he'd called out Yook on his weekly Micheal Kay appearance [...] the way the Boston media and the blogotwitterverse operates, in a couple of months it will be a 'fact' that Valentine DID call out Youk on Yankee TV."

Kay's show is a radio show. (Unless you meant that the misinformation will make it so Kay's radio show is actually a TV show.)

Ross:We’re trying to get something going right there in a late situation, and that’s unacceptable. ... If I’m going up there and striking out every at-bat, I’m going to get benched. But it’s not that way with (umpires). They can go out there and make bad calls all day, and they’re not going to be held accountable for it.